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It's enough to give you a headache. Some of the pills inside the bottle of Excedrin in your bathroom cabinet might be the wrong ones.
Drugmaker Novartis is recalling a slew of nonprescription medicines because of of quality issues at a factory in Lincoln, Neb.
Look out for Excedrin and NoDoz with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2014, or earlier. Bufferin and Gas-X Prevention with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2013, or earlier, are also affected. The complete rundown of affected medicines is here.
The company says there may be chipped or broken tablets inside some bottles. There's a bigger worry, though. It's possible that "stray tablets, capsules, or caplets," as Novartis puts it, could have found their way into the container of medicine you bought.
The company explains:
"Mixing of different products in the same bottle could result in consumers taking the incorrect product and receiving a higher or lower strength than intended or receiving an unintended ingredient. This could potentially result in overdose, interaction with other medications a consumer may be taking, or an allergic reaction if the consumer is allergic to the unintended ingredient."
Novartis says it's unaware of any health problems caused by the quality lapses that led to the recalls.
The factory that makes the affected drugs has suspended production while Novartis sorts out the problems there and deals with the recalls.
The Food and Drug Administration inspectors alleged numerous problems at the Nebraska plant last year. Since 2009, Novartis "failed to adequately investigate" 166 complaints about pill mix-ups, the FDA said. And when the company did mount investigations, they didn't go far enough, the agency said, citing examples involving mix-ups of Excedrin Migraine caplets, tablets and gelcaps.
Overall, the FDA alleged the quality unit at the factory has been understaffed and "has consistently failed to review critical complaints" for drugs made and packaged there.
Novartis said it's working to remedy the problem. In a statement, CEO Joseph Jimenez said, "We are making the necessary investments and committing the right resources" to make sure that quality standards are upheld across the company.
In a related move, the FDA is telling consumers to check bottles of narcotic painkillers sold by Endo Pharmaceuticals to make sure the pills are all the same. Bottles of Percocet, Percodan, Opana and some other Endo drugs are manufactured and packaged at the same Novartis plant. The bottles may contain stray pills from a different kind of medicine, the FDA said.
And the Associated Press reports that the FDA said it's possible that some of Novartis' over-the-counter pills may accidentally have been packaged with some of Endo's narcotic painkillers. "The likelihood of finding a wrong tablet in an opiate pain medication dispensed to patients is low and patients should not be unduly alarmed," FDA's Dr. Edward Cox said, according to the AP.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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North Korea executes 80, some for minor offenses, newspaper says
North Korea staged gruesome public executions of 80 people this month, some for offenses as minor as watching South Korean entertainment videos or being found in possession of a Bible, a South Korean newspaper reported Monday.
The daily JoongAng Ilbo attributed the mass executions to a single, unidentified source, but at least one other news agency, run by North Korean defectors, reported hearing rumors of the killings in seven cities across the reclusive country.
Authorities in Wonsan, a port on North Korea's eastern coast that is being transformed into a resort in hopes of attracting foreign investment to the impoverished country, gathered more than 10,000 residents in a stadium and forced them to watch the firing-squad executions, the newspaper reported.
The condemned were lashed to poles, hooded, then sprayed with machine-gun fire, JoongAng Ilbo quoted its source, who reportedly is familiar with North Korean internal affairs and recently returned from the country.
"I heard from the residents that they watched in terror as the corpses were so riddled by machine-gun fire that they were hard to identify afterwards," the source was quoted as saying.
If confirmed, the mass execution would be the most brutal step known to have been taken by the country's 30-year-old leader, Kim Jong Un, who came to power two years ago after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il.
The South Korean newspaper, one of the country's largest and most influential, noted that the executions occurred in cities where the communist leadership is attempting to create entities that can earn hard currency and may have been intended to intimidate workers who stray from the regime's dictatorial social strictures.
Some of those put to death had been charged with disseminating pornography, JoongAng Ilbo said it was told by its source.
In August, Kim was reported to have ordered the executions of a dozen entertainers from the Unhasu Orchestra and the Wangjaesan Light Music Band, including ex-girlfriend Hyon Song Wol. Chosun Ilbo, another leading South Korean daily, said the troupe members reportedly filmed themselves having sex and sold the videos on the black market to earn money.
Monday's report said a South Korean official with business in the North had been told by North Korean authorities that an investigation into the Unhasu affair suggested Kim's wife had been involved in similar prohibited activities. The source suggested that the entertainers were executed to prevent disparaging accounts from circulating about the first lady's behavior.
None of those executed on Nov. 3 had been accused of capital crimes, which under North Korean law include sedition, treason and terrorism, the newspaper said. But it added that public executions are often carried out as a way of discouraging interest in what the regime considers corrupting foreign influence, which can include using a cellphone, religious proselytizing or viewing pornography.
"The regime is obviously afraid of potential changes in people's mind-sets and is preemptively trying to scare people off," said an official of the defector-run North Korea Intellectual Solidarity website, Agence France-Presse reported.
None of the executions were reported to have occurred in Pyongyang, the capital, where the regime nurtures a loyal following among the small elites by focusing its meager development resources on the city.
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Allchin backs away from Vista anti-virus claims
Child's play
Outgoing Windows development chief Jim Allchin has apologised for the confusion he created in comments taken to mean Vista was so secure it might be possible to run the software without any anti-virus installed.
Responding to questions from reporters about whether Vista would be more secure than Windows XP SP2, Allchin said his seven-year-old son runs a Vista PC (locked down with parental controls and no IM or email) without anti-virus protection.
The comments were taken to mean that Allchin reckoned that improved security features in Vista - such as Patchguard and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomisation, a feature that means the system kernel is loaded differently on each Vista machine - would make anti-virus protection obsolete.
Not so.
Allchin said his comments, which if true would decimate the software security market and make Microsoft's own OneCare service redundant, had been taken out of context and misinterpreted.
"After reading the transcript, I could certainly see that what I said wasn't as clear as it could have been, and I'm sorry for that. However, it is also clear from the transcript that I didn't say that users shouldn't run anti-virus software with Windows Vista! In fact, later in the call, I explicitly made this point again, because I had realised I wasn't as clear as I should have been," Allchin writes in a posting to the Windows Vista blog.
Allchin returns to the standard Microsoft line that even though XP Vista is the most secure operating system Redmond has ever produced, users would still need additional security software.
"Most users will use some form of anti-virus software, and that will be appropriate for their scenarios," he writes. ®


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The Lamborghini Family Museum
Successful family businesses in Italy traditionally become closely held dynasties that rarely fall out of control of family members, even over several generations. This old-fashioned paradigm has been challenged of late, but back when Ferruccio Lamborghini gave up his interests in the companies bearing his name, this model was the rule. It is therefore remarkable that--though the company did indeed suffer over several decades from erratic ownership--Automobili Lamborghini survived and even rose to celebrate its latest offerings, the Murcielago and Gallardo. What is not so remarkable is that the Lamborghini family continues to revel in the reputation established by Ferruccio all those many years ago and continues to polish its reflected glory as much as possible.
And what better way to do so than to build a memorial to the man himself? Ferruccio's son Tonino did exactly that, opening the Centro Studi e Ricerche Ferruccio Lamborghini in 2001. The name literally means Study and Research Center but translates better as convention center and exhibition hall, with museum thrown in for good measure. The building's modern triangular architecture uses a striking pattern of two-tone brickwork reminiscent of the striped marble on the Duomo in Florence. It's located only 25 km from the factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese, in the little town of Dosso. You'll see the Lamborghini Calor (boiler) factory right next door, and the original Lamborghini tractor factory is just minutes away in Cento.
Back in Dosso, the dramatic front double doors let you know you're in the right place: two Lamborghini bulls (toro in Italian, the symbol of Ferruccio's zodiac sign, taurus) greet you. Inside, your eyes are assaulted by a riot of color--metallic blue stairs rise above, Persian rugs line the floors between tractors and cars, cases full of models and walls filled with photographs all clamor for your attention. But I'd bet a Euro or three that it's the bright red car that first grabs you--even though this is one of the smallest cars here. It's also historically significant: This tiny red two-seater was Ferruccio's own first race car. It's official name is the Prototipo Ferruccio Lamborghini, and it dates back to 1947. Ferruccio even placed a triangular nose emblem reading FLC on the car, though the components all came from Fiat Topolinos. However, Ferruccio tweaked the little 500cc engine to get 650cc displacement for a top speed of 100 mph. Ferruccio and friend Gianluigi Baglioni entered the car in the 1948 Mille Miglia and drove 700 of the 1,000 miles before having an off-road accident. Neither driver nor passenger were hurt, but the accident is blamed for Lamborghini's later distaste for racing.
Unlike the factory's museum, this collection emphasizes Ferruccio's personal cars and accomplishments throughout his life. Tractors therefore take pride of place, with many examples on display, from one of his first--a 1947 "Carioca," built, as all his first efforts were, with surplus military machinery--to the latest haulers and threshers. In 1959 he expanded into boilers and air conditioners--there's a 1965 model on display--and soon after began his third enterprise: a helicopter company. Lamborghini only built one, which failed to meet government licensing regulations, but now hangs high above the display here in Tonino's collection.
It's a good thing for supercar lovers that Lamborghini's helicopter efforts failed, just as it's a good thing Enzo Ferrari was so dismissive of this "lowly" tractor manufacturer. If Enzo had bothered to address Lamborghini's complaints about his noisy, unreliable Ferrari, Ferruccio wouldn't have vowed to match--or better, beat--Ferrari at his own game. Some of the cars Lamborghini drove himself are here in the exhibit hall: a gorgeous red 1966 Miura P40 SV and a 1970 Jarama S. A 1971 Countach, a '66 400GT, '67 Espada and a '68 Islero, all brightly colored, some just in chassis form, some featuring odd touches like woodwork, are interspersed through the crowded exhibit space. Auto, marine and tractor engines join in, as well as a bicycle and a bronze bust of Ferruccio mounted high atop a bronze wreath.
One tiny mini-car on display turns out to be brand new, not a piece of Ferruccio's history. It's a Town Life electric car, with echos of the Fiat 500, the old Topolino, and the new Sparrow, and it's being produced by Tonino Lamborghini in partnership with a company in Foligno, Italy. They've got a cool webpage at www.townlife.it (you'll need Flash). Turns out Ferruccio's son Tonino has done quite well with the family name, even if the only cars he produces are electric; examples of Tonino's watches, eye wear, clothing, gourmet food (pasta, basalmic and olive oil) are on display here on the second level. What you don't see here you can find online at www.lamborghini.it.
Tonino may even be there to meet you, as you have to write ahead in any case, since conferences sometimes close the museum to the public. When you write or fax, ask for a copy of the brochure--it has a handy map that will help you find the place. --GO
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Empowering Native Americans
Open gallery
On a warm summer night in Oklahoma, members of the Seminole Nation gathered for a celebratory stomp dance. Men wore blue jeans and baseball or cowboy hats adorned with eagle, hawk, and crane feathers. A tribal elder began to sing, and the other men chanted the chorus in their native tongue. Women, dressed in skirts and blouses designed with Seminole patchwork, kept the rhythm with shell shakers fastened to their legs.
As he watched the dancers shuffle and stomp around the fire, 5-year-old Jeremy Aliason's eyes began to droop. His grandmother wanted him to lie down, but his great-grandfather, a stoic man of few words, told her to let the boy stay up and learn about his culture.
"That was a big deal for me," says Aliason. "I paid extra attention to the songs and stayed awake until the sun came up. Our dances were traditionally held at night to protect and preserve our heritage."
Aliason learned a lesson in cultural pride that night. Today, as executive director of the National Native American Bar Association in Oklahoma City, he advocates for Indian lawyers as well as Indian nations. "It's our responsibility to protect the sovereignty of more than 560 independent tribal governments," he says.
The bar association is pursuing several aims, including adding Indian law to state bar exams, matching pro bono law firms with tribes in need of legal assistance, and increasing the number of Native American law students and tribal court judges.
"Gaming issues also remain a constant challenge," says Aliason. The positive aspects of gaming for Indian nations abound, he says, but many operations in remote locations fail. "Gaming impedes the restoration process for some tribes seeking official recognition from the U.S. government," says Aliason. "Lawmakers often think Indians are insincere, wanting sovereignty only to establish gaming on their lands."
Aliason's path to his dream job has been a winding one.
Always a good student, he taught 9th- and 10th- grade English through the American Indian Teachers Corps in Oklahoma in the late 1990s.
"After that year, I felt that I needed an advanced degree," says Aliason. "I saw law school as an opportunity to gain the skills and credentials needed to empower myself and advocate for my people."
When his wife, Inger, attended medical school in Portland, Aliason began studying at Lewis & Clark Law School. He found his niche as an advocate during his third year in the Lewis & Clark Law Clinic, which provides legal services to impoverished clients. After varied externships and jobs, he returned to the law school to coordinate the Indian Law Program and teach moot court classes.
But the call of home was irresistible. When Aliason's wife accepted a position as a pediatric anesthesiologist at the University of Oklahoma Children's Hospital, he came on board part time at the bar association.
"I'm a lucky man," he says. "There's a natural ebb and flow to my work, so I'm able to balance it with parenthood."
Aliason is the primary caregiver for the couple's two daughters. Ten-year-old Ruby Jean is an avid swimmer and seven-year-old Elena loves hip-hop dancing. Both play baseball.
He also champions College Horizons, a nonprofit organization that supports higher education for Native American students by providing college and graduate admissions workshops.
"I want my children's friends and parents to see me as a strong, accomplished Indian man," he says. "I want to live by example and help create a paradigm shift in the way they think about life and opportunities."
—by Pattie Pace
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Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. The 2011 United States Census Estimates put the city at 130,591. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan statistical area of 767,598, the largest within the state. The name Columbia was a poetic term for the Americas derived from Christopher Columbus. Located 13 miles northwest of South Carolina's geographic center, Columbia is the primary city of the Midlands region of South Carolina, which comprises several counties in the central portion of the state. The city lies at the confluence of two rivers, the Saluda and the Broad, which merge at Columbia to form the Congaree River. CNNMoney.com named Columbia as one of America's 25 best places to retire, and U.S. News & World Report ranked the city sixth on its 2009 America's Best Affordable Places to Retire. list.
The Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority (CMRTA), is the agency responsible for operating mass transit in the greater Columbia area including Cayce, West Columbia, Forest Acres, Arcadia Lakes, Springdale, and the St. Andrews area. CMRTA operates express shuttles, as well as bus service serving Columbia and its immediate suburbs. The authority was established in October 2002 after SCANA released ownership of public transportation back to the City of Columbia. Since 2003, CMRTA provides transportation for more than 2 million passengers, has expanded route services, and introduced 43 new ADA accessible buses offering a safer, more comfortable means of transportation. CMRTA has also added 10 natural gas powered buses to the fleet.
"On a recent trip to an auto show Columbia, we ran across a group of older gentlemen who really became interested in what we do for a living. The appraisal industry and appraisers in general are really an unseen area of the industry...always needed, but mostly overlooked by insurance companies The process of going over these vehicles with a fine-tooth-comb was not lost on these men as they had seen the great depresion years first-hand. One man told how his father had purchased a truck for his business only to find that the seller had added things to the oil and other fluids to hide sounds of damage. Several days after the purchase, the truck broke down, and without the truck the business was lost.
We had a great time with this group of men and actually landed a fleet contract from them as we had no clue they were rather well-off business men just enjoying the show. The cruise in the Classic 1967 Corvette later that evening was especially nice. Over a few drinks we talked about the experiences over the years and were complimented on taking our time with what appeared to be just a group of 'old guys' asking questions. They really rewarded our normal way of handling the day to day: treating everyone like they are our number one customer."
Here at Pinnacle we want our customers to feel that they understand the value and procedures involved. We take our time to make sure you understand the value of your vehicle, the issues we find we explain, and we take the time to offer advice: it's what we do at Pinnacle Auto Appraisers. Everywhere we go we tend to make really good friends out of our customers and generally pickup new clients through word-of-mouth: it's time to call and let us do the same for you.
We bring our expertise and experience to the table for large corporations as well as the little guy. Whether you are a group of buddies enjoying a car show, a fleet manager ready to dissolve and create a new fleet, or a corporate purchasing agent looking for appraisals: We can help value what you own.
If you live in Columbia, South Carolina or in the surrounding areas we offer certified auto appraisals on classic cars, fleet vehicles, lease turn-in, total loss, diminished value, stated value, pre-purchase inspections, charitable donations, motorcycles, recreational vehicles and more! Please contact us today for more information.
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EMBED THIS IMAGEdownload a chapter >
C-Span came to record my book talk at Barnes and Noble last month, so I knew it was coming. But it was still exciting to flip the remote to C-Span in my parents' living room and watch them jump around at the sight of their kid on the TV set. The talk itself was good, but not as good as that feeling. As those of you who have purchased the book now, I dedicated it to my parents, who certainly have suffered the most from my love of questions. I don't think you can access the C-Span clip, but you can hear my latest interviews on The Peter B. Collins Show and Blog Business World with Wayne Hurlbert.
I had the great pleasure of being invited to Grit-TV to talk about the book. Laura asked me about why I wrote the book, whether the media is doing its job of asking questions, and about what kinds of questions I think people should be asking the answers to which cannot be Googled. The highlight for me was when they played clips from America's Town Hall Meeting on the Air, the old radio show that I argue is an illustration of how the media can model inquiry while engaging in current day debates. What a contrast to the Dobbs and O'Reilly of today. More in the chapter "Consuming Opinion." As Samuel Goldwyn once famously said, "When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you." I don't think Fox would disagree. What about the questions?
Click here to watch. Clip is about 17 minutes long.
A review from Tom Watson, author of CauseWired (and friend): July 26, 2009
Every era has at least a few serious voices who openly question the new ways, the settled conventional wisdom around innovations in style, technology and social habits that change - at least on the surface - how society operates. As everybody else is celebrating the greatness of, well, themselves, these idoloclasts happily throw poison-tipped darts in a cultural clash with the totems of perceived progress.
Such a counter-programmer is my friend Andrea Batista Schlesinger, the 32-year-old New Yorker and progressive activist whose first book The Death of Why holds up a big, fat stop sign to those who would celebrate under the banner "all that is modern is good."
[Note: Andrea is the longtime executive director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a progressive think tank on whose board of directors I've served since 2002. She's on leave from that position while working as a policy adviser to the reelection campaign of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.]
The Death of Why goes against the grain. It stands opposed to any triumphalist viewpoints regarding digital communications. You can easily read it as the diametric opposite of Jeff Jarvis's somewhat hagiographic What Would Google Do?, for example. Andrea doesn't believe the Internet in general - and Google specifically - has necessarily made us any smarter or more democratic as a society. While she praises the innovation of always-available information and the worldwide networked conversation made possible by the network of networks, she also strikes out at the idea of searching as knowledge, of linking as journalism or education.
And she uses one particular commentator's voice as a stalking horse for her arguments against the Internet-as-knowledge: mine. In the fourth chapter - In Google We Trust - Andrea posits that the "Internet responds to curiosity as much as it creates it" but argues that "searching for answers" isn't the same thing as answering questions. Then she quotes me: "Certainly we're in far better shape, in terms of tools and ability, for deep inquiry than we used to be."
Not so fast, argues Andrea. "When I survey the search engine landscape, I see conditions that are less than inspiring of 'deep inquiry' especially for our youngest. I see the formation of habits of mind characterized by a dangerous lack of discernment." And young people, she says, bounce around as guileless link and search-box addicts, mistaking the search-cut-paste process for deep inquiry.
This is undoubtedly true in many instances. I've seen it. But I'm not sure it's a bigger problem than the use of Cliff Notes or the Xerox machine by earlier generations. In the end, I'm not sure young Americans really are less inquisitive. That may be because of the field I've worked in for the last decade - progressive causes and philanthropy - tends to attract young, enthusiastic professionals who won't take no for an answer and seem to question everything. Then too, the social entrepreneurs I profiled in my book CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World were similarly driven to challenge every status quo they found - and to use digital technology to do so. Finally, my own three children are constantly questioning things that I tend to think of as settled subject matter, with no hesitation to challenge and probe and looks things up. They don't necessarily follow the leader.
Nonetheless, The Death of Why is an important book - and I think it's particularly timely, given the challenges that major American institutions (like big newspapers and Federal agencies) are facing in an increasingly crowd-sourced era. It's a great book for journalists concerned that the so-called "link economy" leaves serious inquiry out in the cold - and for e-government types who seek to go beyond merely making information available in vast databases but to actually encourage citizen involvement in our republic.
And this goes for newspapers, whose approaching demise the author mourns loudly. Currying no favor with the digerati, Andrea argues (and I agree) that the decline of news organizations is bad for democracy and that it's unlikely that blogs and online specialty sites will rise to replace the full gamut of professional journalism. "When you start the day with the newspaper," she writes, " you start with the recognition that you are a person in the world, with a need and responsibility to engage."
Throughout the book, Andrea decries the echo chamber of modern information and communications - the trend toward finding what you want (the viewpoint you already support) rather than coming across something you didn't know. That "self-segregation" does indeed permeate much of what we take as political dialogue for instance. Andrea decries the national political process in the modern age, panning the 2008 Presidential debates between Senators Obama and McCain as flimsy and personality-driven, and slyly pointing out that Hillary Clinton's campaign was rejuvenated when she came out of the bubble and started taking tough, unscripted questions. "The irony is that the candidates need not fear questioning," she says.
Perhaps the best quality of The Death of Why lies in its inherent skepticism toward what we've come to accept as the right way to approach learning, particularly public education. Andrea's a bit young for curmudgeon status, but her gruff and skeptical take on so-called "financial literacy" is welcome. So much of this kind of education is really marketing, priming the sales pump for future consumers. And if that passes for inquiry, we're in serious trouble. Writes Andrea: "Our democracy will suffer if the youngest among us grow up thinking that today's society and the economy that sustains it are working just as they should."
Click here to continue the conversation
Robert Ellman of the Intrepid Liberal Journal grills me in this podcast interview currently cross-posted throughout the political blogosphere.
Click here to listen.
From Rob's intro: "The one life lesson Schlesinger has learned above all others in her career and promotes passionately her book is that questions equals power. It is Schlesinger's contention that our culture promotes instant answers at the expense of inquiring.
With this book, Schlesinger has four primary objectives:
1) Convince readers of the importance of inquiry in our democracy;
2) Illustrate how the very institutions that should be encouraging inquiry such as schools, the media, and government, the Internet are instead undermining intellectual curiosity in our society;
3) Inspire readers with hopeful examples of people working to restore inquiry to its rightful place of importance;
4) Convey a sense of urgency among citizens to develop effective "habits of the mind" and not be easily seduced by instant easy sound bite answers to complex challenges such as global warming.
Death of Why, is a well researched and scrupulously sourced eleven chapters and 215 pages of text. Where Schlesinger's book is especially provocative is when she takes bloggers like me to task for engaging in robotic group-think and avoiding engagement with people possessing different viewpoints."
Thanks, Rob, for the great interview.
I had a great time participating in the Firedoglake book salon yesterday. The conversation was moderated by Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation. His generous and thoughtful intro:
FDL Book Salon Welcomes Andrea Batista Schlesinger: The Death of Why? Andrea Batista Schlesinger's commentary has a simple thesis. An inquisitive attitude is essential to dutiful citizenship in a democracy, and the attitude is waning among American youths. Teenagers and 20-year-olds in the United States have little curiosity about the workings of government, they don't follow the actions of their representatives, they don't read the newspaper or watch the network news, and, worst of all, they don't care--or at least they are taught not to. The institutions that should inspire civic inquiry--schools, media, governments--fail their responsibility, sometimes deliberately so, and the rising generation follows their lead. We've lost the crucial interrogative "Why?"
This is not to say that questions don't happen and media don't expose the workings of power. Those things circulate all the time, but they get lost in the flood of information and 24/7 news cycles. Furthermore, other forces squelch young people's curiosity about such matters. They include:
* Parenting styles that emphasize self-esteem and praise, with the effect of discouraging the kind of intellectual struggles that come with civic inquiry. * Google, which allows over-fast results to questioning, disallowing lengthier, serendipitous ways of searching. * The Web, which allows users to customize their connections to the world, linking them to things that already interest them and people that already agree with them. * School curricula that aim to produce effective and obedient workers, not independent thinkers. * Media that downplay investigative journalism and reporting on the facts, instead offering pundits and personalities that opine and rant.
It's a consumerist, individualist era, Schlesinger maintains, and people eschew the labor of examination. "I see an environment that prizes projections of certainty over the wisdom gained from questioning, and questioning again," she says (page 5). Whereas the Internet, politicians, and media promise a world ever-more respectful of public opinion, audience tastes, and empowered users, in truth, "I see us asking our media, our politicians, our self-help gurus for an answer, any answer, to help us understand the world around us." Indeed, therein lies the real attraction of the Internet--not that it opens people to the world and inspires their curiosity, but that it delivers quick and handy resolutions to their confusions and uncertainties.
Schlesinger sprinkles illustrations in the commentary to flesh out the message. An appearance with Lou Dobbs on CNN to discuss immigration, a conservative commentator writing about social justice education, local politicians in Hampton, VA, contending with young activists, and advocates of financial literacy in the classroom . . . they display the momentum of an anti-inquiry society. For instance, while civics knowledge among young people is abysmal (only one in four high school seniors on the 2006 NAEP exam reached "proficiency"), politicians and private organizations involved in education such as Jump$tart are more interested in courses in "Money 101" than in "Government 101." And while advocates of digital learning such as Tom Watson claim that "the Internet encourages curiosity," Schlesinger finds that "young people search for information online without any intention. They bounce all over the place, hopping and skipping their way through content" (page 61). The Bush Administration pledged that No Child Left Behind would raise outcomes across the board, but their testing focus, though it may have enhanced basic skills, blunted civic knowledge and critical thinking.
These tendencies jeopardize the body politic, Schlesinger concludes, and its reversal begins precisely with a rededication to a vigilant, informed citizenry that guards its prerogatives closely, but doesn't lapse into a self-involved, my-opinion-is-as-good-as-your-opinion mindset. We need a more intelligent, querulous civic sphere, and we waste our time waiting for politicians and media to deliver it.
Click here to read the discussion.
FDL Book Salon Welcomes Andrea Batista Schlesinger: The Death of Why? A conversation moderated by Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation July 18, 2009
Andrea Batista Schlesinger's commentary has a simple thesis. An inquisitive attitude is essential to dutiful citizenship in a democracy, and the attitude is waning among American youths. Teenagers and 20-year-olds in the United States have little curiosity about the workings of government, they don't follow the actions of their representatives, they don't read the newspaper or watch the network news, and, worst of all, they don't care--or at least they are taught not to. The institutions that should inspire civic inquiry--schools, media, governments--fail their responsibility, sometimes deliberately so, and the rising generation follows their lead. We've lost the crucial interrogative "Why?"
Click here to read the conversation including comments and questions from members of the Firedoglake.com community.
Lots of life for "The Death of Why." Today, the "Ideological Segregation by Click and by Clique" chapter is excerpted at Alternet.com where a lively discussion in the comments section is underway. On Saturday, you'll find me on Firedoglake.com's book salon for a two-hour chat moderated by Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation. We don't agree on everything, so this should be an interesting conversation. On Monday, I'll be in DC at Busboys and Poets to talk with Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change about the book and its relevance to the progressive movement. Lots more in the events section. Check it out, sign up, and don't forget to buy a copy...
"The Death of Why" excerpted on Alternet.org
Provocative New Book Challenges Us to Really Ask "Why?" The following is an excerpt from The Death of "Why?": The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy by Andrea Batista Schlesinger. Copyright 2009 Andrea Batista Schlesinger. Reprinted with permission by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Ideological Segregation by Click and by Clique When was the last time you changed your mind on something important? I've changed my mind a few times. One thing I can say for sure is that I've never changed it while surrounded by people who agree with me. But we are insulating ourselves from more and more opposing viewpoints--through the places we live, the way we vote, and who we turn to for news and information--and finding fewer and fewer catalysts to question our beliefs.
Click here for more and to participate in the conversation.
The Death of Why in Los Angeles Times
Answers can be found in questions by Gregory Rodriguez Los Angeles Times June 29, 2009
With apologies to Nike, if the United States were a for-profit venture, its slogan would be "Just do it."
Few would dispute the notion that we are an action-oriented people. From an early age, Americans are bombarded with the message that actions speak louder than words and that talk is cheap. Who among us as a child opening presents on his birthday really believed the moral that it's the thought that counts? Come on!
To the extent that we do value thinking, it's usually as a means to action. We're taught to want solutions, find answers, get to the bottom of things. We pride ourselves in our pragmatism.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson once put it, "Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing." That's so American.
OK, I'm not about to repeat the hackneyed liberal charge that we are a nation of unthinking dolts, or H.L. Mencken's famous dictum about "the booboisie." I think our orientation toward action has a lot to do with the fact that our country was founded on and built around some rather lofty ideas: freedom, equality, liberty. You can envision U.S. history as the constant uphill battle of trying to turn those ideas into reality. In the beginning, there were ideas. They demanded action.
The reality is, we don't see a big dichotomy between action and knowledge. Knowledge gets us where we want to go. In fact, now more than ever, Americans seem to have a grasp of this fact or the other. Having flattened the world of news and knowledge, the younger generations in particular have trillions of facts at their fingertips. "Search" has made us all drive-by scholars.
This, according to liberal think-tanker Andrea Batista Schlesinger, has only heightened our collective "obsession with answers." The problem, she says, is that we're less and less likely to be engaged in the questions.
Quick access to facts has made us too impatient to engage in lengthy deliberation, "deep inquiry" or discernment. In her new book, "The Death of Why?," Batista Schlesinger -- until recently, the executive director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy in New York -- makes a passionate case for inquiry qua inquiry. She links the future of the American experiment to the extent to which we teach our children how to ask questions.
Even as society more and more limits its definition of civic engagement to results-oriented activism, Batista Schlesinger defines it as teaching Americans to discuss problems and giving them the intellectual skills to navigate our democracy.
For example, she acknowledges the uptick in youth political involvement in the Obama era -- they voted, gave money, sent e-mails. She nonetheless questions young people's depth of engagement in the political process. She suggests that it's not enough to mobilize people to advocate for this or that position. What's more important is cultivating long-term, patient "skills of inquiry, problem solving and creative thinking." As Batista Schlesinger puts it, "We have the mistaken belief that even the most pressing challenges facing our country -- climate change, globalization, healthcare, poverty -- are problems to be 'fixed' once and for all, if only we can find the right solution and the right person to implement."
This overwhelming preference for outcome over process is part of what has led to the ideological polarization of the country. The desire for certainty -- hard facts, quick answers -- in an uncertain world leads people to take refuge in political or religious ideology. Ideological solutions -- whether from the left or the right -- generally offer us simple answers to complex problems.
In a way, Batista Schlesinger is asking us to take a step back from politics in order to gain newfound respect for the political process. She advocates for what she calls "slow democracy." She's also asking us for a little humility and to embrace a healthy dose of doubt. Our salvation lies in our willingness to rethink the world in its ever-changing configurations.
"What we need to acknowledge, now more than ever," she writes, "is that we do not know everything. We cannot know everything. Knowledge changes. ... The future is a moving target, and the ground beneath us will never be still. The only thing we can count on to see us through an uncertain future is our ability to ask questions."
Today I participated in a book chat at Crooks and Liars. The questions were fantastic, but hard. I hope it's a sign of how the theme resonates with people. Here's the chat, starting with an intro post from the fantastic Nicole Belle:
C&L Book Chat: The Death of Why by Andrea Batista Schlesinger By Nicole Belle Wednesday Jun 17, 2009 10:00am
Just a simple one-word sentence, yet it conveys probably the most anarchic, the most radical, the most provocative and the most democratizing thought in the world. The ability to question....no, the right and responsibility to question is the very cornerstone of our democracy. The Founding Fathers set forth programs and laid the groundwork to check the workings of our govenment by requiring it to answer to the people from which it was composed.
And yet, somewhere in the last forty years ago or so, we've lost our way. We, collectively as a nation, have decided that we needed to focus on the answers rather than ask the questions. We opt to live among others who share our values, rather than stand to have them questioned by other points of views. We select our media sources from those with which we share an ideological point of view, so our preconceived biases never are challenged. We pour money into the self-help industry, looking for someone to give us the answers that we seek, rather than do the hard work of finding our own path or questioning if we need measure our success in the same way. We gravitate towards politicians who appear to us to have the answers, even though the issues that face us cannot be "solved" by simple answers.
Our lack of appreciation of the power and value of questions leave us mostly disengaged from the democracy of which we're a part. Fewer and fewer people have any notion of how government works and that lack of engagement enables life-changing legislation to get passed with little public discussion.
Where did we lose our way? When did questioning stop being an act of democracy and become unpatriotic? How does this bode for our collective future as another generation is raised with fewer skills to look deeper at issues and analyze and synthesize information to consider solutions? Drum Major Institute's Executive Director Andrea Batista Schlessinger looks at this issue in her new book The Death of Why and she joins us here today to discuss it.
It is Andrea's position that so much of the policy debate is won in the framing. How are issues discussed? Through what lens do we approach debates about government and its role in our lives? Are we creating the capacity/will/desire in our young people to question? Are the tools that we give children to learn actually limiting their ability to really think?
These are questions that go right to the heart of where we find ourselves today and some fairly frightening prospects for our future if we don't reintroduce the value of questioning to the next generation.
Please welcome Andrea Batista Schlessinger to C&L and let's discuss The Death of Why:
I was very excited to be asked to contribute an essay to the AFL-CIO's Point of View Project on a topic related to the book. Here it is. Please let me know what you think! And check out the other essays - very interesting stuff. I especially enjoyed this piece on Francis Perkins:
Remember Civics? Here's Why We Need It By Andrea Batista Schlesinger I want to make an argument that may seem strange in the midst of so many debates--health care, stimulus, CEO compensation and so on---that are critical to American working people:
We all have to start caring a lot more about civics.
Civics? Yes. If we want to ensure that a pro-worker progressive movement is in our future, we need to raise a generation of young people who feel connected to the institutions of their democracy, who understand how to navigate them and who understand from an early age that it is their right--and their responsibility--to question them.
In 1906, the Committee of Five, appointed by the American Political Science Assocation to examine the extent to which schools were preparing high school students for citizenship, "linked poor preparation at the early levels to the plethora of bad politicians and weak public servants its members believed dominated turn-of-the century American government." According to Prof. Hindy Lauer Schachter, who authored a study on these early effects, the success of our participatory democracy was viewed as directly related to the preparation of its youngest citizens.
If you believe that this is true today, then you must also worry that our democracy is in sorry shape.
Since 1969, the federal government has tested young people on their civic knowledge -- that is, their understanding of the inner workings of government and their rights and responsibilities as citizens. These exams are part of a larger battery of tests in all subjects, called the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Unlike the other exams, however, NAEP civics is tested only every four years. By comparison, math and reading are tested at least every two years, as required by No Child Left Behind.
According to the 2006 NAEP Report Card, only one in four American twelfth graders was found to be "proficient" (and this was not a high bar). Five percent of twelfth graders tested could explain three ways in which the president can be checked by the legislative or judicial branches. One in two could explain the outcome when state and national laws conflict. Twenty-eight percent of eighth graders could articulate the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence.
When presented with a photograph of the 1963 March on Washington with Martin Luther King, only one in four could explain "two specific ways in which marches and demonstrations such as the one illustrated can achieve political goals."
Lack of civil knowledge on the part of our young people, as evidenced by these scores, is a long-term threat. The decision to vote--and then the basis upon which people make their decisions in the voting booth--can be traced to our civic knowledge. According to Samuel Popkin and Michael Dimock, political scientists and authors of "Knowledge and Citizen Competence": "Nonvoting results from a lack of knowledge about what government is doing and where parties and candidates stand, not from a knowledgeable rejection of government or parties or a lack of trust in government."
But more than just knowing stuff, and more than just knowing how to vote and wanting to, it is important that young people have the experience of getting their hands dirty, talking about current events as they unfold and learning how government works through first-hand experience.
When civics was more important in the schools in the 20th century, for example, children brought home civics grades on their report cards. In fact, students took three civics classes, including Problems in Democracy, in which they talked about current affairs and challenges facing American government.
"We know that a substantial percentage of kids in the mid-20th century took that Problems in Democracy course," lamented Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Today, that course is gone, with nothing to replace it. "I really do think that [coursework] probably can't be found in the intricacies of today's curriculum," Levine told me. "It's not like they're doing that somewhere else."
And why not resuscitate this course? Because it doesn't fit in to the goals of No Child Left Behind? Well, reconcile that with the data showing that students who talk about current events with their families are more likely to be engaged citizens and that engaged citizens who participate in civic activities are better students.
Today, there are some efforts working to help young people learn how to navigate their local institutions. Like Project Citizen. In the words of its founder, Charles Quigley, Project Citizen "actively engages kids in going into their communities, interviewing people, doing survey research, identifying public policy problems, developing their own proposed solutions and political action plans, and trying to have an impact on City Hall." Unfortunately, the program reaches only about 500,000 students each year--1 percent of the nation's 2006 school-age population. (Though I suppose we should be satisfied that the program survived the Bush administration's efforts to decimate it--given how Bush officials can't have been too keen on preparing children to question and change their government.)
Maybe it's anachronistic, but I think we need to raise young people who care about their local institutions as much as they do the worlds they can access through Facebook, who have an understanding about how to pursue policy change right there in their local City Hall, who talk about current events and who know what a march on Washington can accomplish.
I care about civics because I care about a lasting progressive agenda in our country, one that is based on the right and ability of regular people to influence the direction of their government.
Two years ago, I began the journey of writing this book. A lot has changed in that time - both in the real world and in my own life - but one thing remains as clear to me as when I began writing my book proposal: the question we ask is as the important as the answer.
It is with the question that we define the parameters of the conversation.
It's true when it comes to our personal lives -how many times have we fought with the people around us only to realize that we were answering different questions? It's especially true when it comes to public policy.
Look at the national debate over education reform. I write about this in Part 2 of my book, entitled "Citizens or Consumers?" I write about the decline of value placed on civics education in our schools, where young people are taught to question their democracy. I contrast that with the growing movement for financial literacy in the schools, where I believe young people are taught to navigate the market as is. And, of course, this is all happening at the same as standardized testing and "accountability" have come to define the educational experience of children throughout the country. What better evidence of the prioritization of answering rather than questioning?
In all of the conversation about the direction of our schools, experts, policymakers, advocates, etc. each offer their own perspective on what is most important and what works and what doesn't in a conversation that seems to operate at such cross-currents that I wonder if they are even answering the same question.
And I offer that the real question that they should be asking is: What is the role of the public schools?
Is it to prepare citizens? To prepare consumers and workers? I argue in the book that the answer to this question will lead us in very different directions when it comes to education policy. If we aim to prepare workers and consumers, it makes sense to emphasize standardized testing and to use valuable school hours to prepare children to manage their finances. If we believe, as the founders of the public school system did, that our schools should prepare citizens, we will have a different definition of success and therefore a different approach to what children experience each day.
I just doubt that, the personal vision and commitment of those engaged in the education debate notwithstanding, we can have a meaningful conversation about what to do with our schools if we don't ask the deeper questions about the role public education should play in our lives. There is no one "reform" that can trend this requirement. In fact, there can be no real and lasting reform without a conversation that starts with that question.
More on that over the next few days. Of course, get the book for the background.
What are you questioning today?
Who Killed the Why? Buy Andrea Batista Schlesinger's Book to Find Out RaceWire: The Color Lines Blog - June 10, 2009
Andrea Batista Schlesinger, a featured speaker at Facing Race 2008 and an ARC boardmember, has written her first book, The Death of Why: The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy.
The ability to inquire deeply is the lifeblood of a great democracy, Andrea argues, and Americans have lost much of their questioning muscle in the age of the internet and standardized testing.
In chapters ranging from disappearing civics education to the myth of financial literacy ("No Piggybank Left Behind!"), Andrea teaches us the value of struggling with what we don't know, so that we can think and act in ways that transport us outside of our conventional bubbles of so-called wisdom. The book is full of stories, both cautionary and inspiring.
Since Andrea blames me for coming up with the miserable notion that she should write a book, good sales among ARC friends will help heal our relationship.
TPMCafe Book Club August 31 - September 4 Log on to join the conversation.
Colorado: Heads Up! Radio 88.5 FM (Boulder) / 1390 AM (Denver) September 1, 8:00 - 9:00 PM EST
Wisconsin: The Alan Eisenberg Show at WRJN 1400 AM September 6, 9:00 PM EST
Boston: Harvard Square Coop Event September 29, 7:00 PM EST 1400 Massachusetts.
Providence: Brown University Bookstore September 30, 6:00 PM 244 Thayer Street Providence, RI. NYC: Demos book event October 13, 2009, 12 noon - 1:00 pm 220 Fifth Avenue, 5th floor
Past Events: It's too late to see the events below, but you can view pictures or read transcripts of the events in many cases by clicking on the links!
Houston: Interview with Wally James of the "The Progressive Forum" on Pacifica radio August 27, 8:00 PM EST KPFT 90.1 FM
Blog Talk Radio - Blog Business World with Wayne Hurlbert August 18, 8:00 PM EST
Podcast interview on The Peter B. Collins Show August 17, 2009
NYC: Barnes and Noble reading July 28, 7:00 pm EST Introduced by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Barnes and Noble location: 2289 Broadway.
Santa Fe: Public Radio Interview on KFSR "Journey Home" with Diego Mulligan July 22, 5:00pm CT/7:00 pm EST Listen live here
GritTV with Laura Flanders July 21, 12pm noon EST Click here to watch
DC: Reading at Busboys and Poets bookstore. July 20, 6:30 pm EST Co-sponsored by the Center for Community Change, the Arca Foundation and the Campaign for America's Future. Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change will talk with Andrea about the book.
Firedoglake book chat July 18, 2009, 5:00 pm -7:00 pm EST. Log on to FireDogLake for a chat with author Andrea Batista Schlesinger.
The Morning Show on KPFA July 10, 2009 Click here to listen
New York City book release party June 24, 2009, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm EST Please join the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and Katrina vanden Heuvel, Ana Oliviera, Dan Cantor, Ana Maria Archila and more to celebrate the release of Andrea Batista Schlesinger's new book. Feldman Gallery. 31 Mercer Street. Please RSVP to email@example.com.
Crooks & Liars book chat June 17, 2009, 2:00 pm EST Log on for a chat with author Andrea Batista Schlesinger.
download a chapter > berrett koehler website >


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PotterCast 131: Rowling Along
Dec 24, 2007
Happy Holidays! We're back with the second part of our JK Rowling interview on our Harry Potter podcast, PotterCast.
To listen, subscribe via iTunes (subscribers, hit "Update this Podcast" if you don't see it right away), or grab it via direct download, or just hit the "Play" button on the right side of the page (–>.
Show info:
An intro with just the trio – we talk about the week's news as well as the Jo interview and our experience of it. This is the last part with Jo but future shows will have our little bloopers, and Jo does promise to come back. So keep twiddling those dials!
Jo returns and we talk about:
Dogs on her web site
The wallpaper
Rude words and rubbish
Carnegie Hall redux
What's in the Love Room?
Love raising people to the heights of absolute heroism, and foolishness
What exactly did Alan Rickman know and when?
Snape – was he truly meant to be in Slytherin?
The Potter Park – she's "very very very involved."
"Personally, I think it will be the best thing in the world of it's type, having seen what I've seen."
What happened to Florean Fortescue?
Wand lore
Hagrid did not create Thestrals
Wands as sentient beings
Albus Potter and the Book They Said Would Never Happen
How the documentary happened
JK Rowling and the Changing Haircuts
"My Name is Lily Potter. You thought I was dead. You were wrong."
"My name is Hedwig…"
Fred? "Whatever," says John
Edited by Superhero Stede Bonnett
With special thanks to Jo and Le Grand Fidd, for everything.
Leaky theme song by Brad Mehlenbacher of Draco and the Malfoys
Podcast Alley
Terminus 2008, the site of the next live PC
Direct download (21 MB).
Direct download low-bandwidth (6 MB).
Remember you don't need an iPod to listen. Listen easily on iTunes, which you can download and install here, by clicking here to listen.
More discussion of the PotterCast is right here. Enjoy!


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What is a QR code and how is it used on IN.gov?
"QR Code" is the abbreviation for Quick Response Code. This simple use of technology has been in place for many years in industries from manufacturing to marketing. The basic process consists of a two-dimensional barcode capable of encoding a large amount of characters such as, website addresses, text information, contact information for business card type data and many other uses.
The use of QR codes has become increasingly popular in the U.S. with the widely adopted use of smart phones capable of reading and processing this information directly from your device. IN.gov has implemented this technology by encoding website URLs. Utilizing a QR Code reader application, users can quickly display content from a computer on their smart phone by clicking the QR Code icon and scanning the code. Most of the major-brand smart phone devices offer built-in QR Code readers or provide free readers in their respective online application market places. Once you have the reader on your phone you can simply use your phone's camera to "scan" the QR Code and your mobile phone will be directed to the page you are currently viewing from your more stationary device.
Have fun exploring the QR Codes on more than 30,000 pages of IN.gov. We feel the codes will provide an excellent way to access/store or share pages with your friends and colleagues while on the go without having to type in the long web address on your device!


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At a national conference recently, I attended a panel on crisis management conducted by officials of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The panelists were explaining to college administrators how to manage campus emergencies. Halfway through a PowerPoint presentation, one of the speakers flashed a sentence up on the screen that read, \"It\'s not what you say; it\'s what Google says.\"
What he meant was that, in the age of the Internet and social media, the \"truth\" about a campus incident—that is, the narrative that everyone believes is the true account of what happened—often is not a factual rendering of what occurred. It is, instead, the story first propagated on Web sites like Facebook and Wikipedia, and then \"catches on.\" Truth, in other words, is what people believe.
His larger point was that in managing a campus crisis—a shooting, a sex scandal—it is wise to make every effort to use social media to disseminate a factual account before uninformed or malicious people can publish a false description of the incident. Apparently, campus executives, like some of their counterparts in the business world, are often too slow to communicate effectively and rapidly early in a crisis, thereby allowing others to seize control of the message, and therefore of \"the truth.\"
\"More people will learn about your institution from Wikipedia than from your own site,\" the panelist said. \"And in a crisis, more people will learn about what happened from Facebook and Twitter than from your own press releases.\" That was a sobering assessment to many of us in the room.
Most colleges invest substantial resources in writers, public-relations experts, and Web-site designers to ensure that they can control the message emanating from the institution (and therefore its image and \"brand\"), yet such efforts may not be paying off, especially in campus crises.
What is especially worrisome to many campus officials is that social media have enabled a mob mentality. When someone posts something on Facebook or Twitter, that message, accurate or not, can rage through a community like a wildfire. The immediacy of the Internet has made many of us impatient for information, so much so that we are too often willing to accept as true whatever we are told first. That impatience can easily lead to a feeding frenzy—or, what an audience member termed, a \"fog of war\" phenomenon.
Another panelist emphasized that the first information circulated about a campus incident is usually wrong. Facts are distorted, people misquoted, unfounded assumptions made.
News coverage of two recent crises in the United States demonstrates just how inaccurate initial reports of the facts can be. Immediately following the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing, various professional news organizations reported that additional unexploded bombs had been found along the marathon route; that bombs had also exploded at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library; that a \"dark-skinned male\" had been arrested for the crime; and that a Saudi Arabian national had been detained as a suspect. None of those reports proved true.
A month later, when three young women in Cleveland were rescued from a decade of captivity at the hands of a sexual predator, Ariel Castro, the initial reports stated that his two brothers were co-conspirators in the crime—another untruth.
Those were erroneous reports from journalists who were dedicated to getting the facts right but who sometimes don\'t. In the world of social media, no such premium is put on accuracy. Instead, Facebook and Twitter more often than not operate according to the politics of rumor, gossip, and sensationalism.
A college president I know was once unfairly tainted by a scandal because he did not effectively control the message. One of his cabinet members was accused of carrying on a sexual relationship with another college employee. While that story did not attract the national media, it caused a firestorm of gossip locally.
Twitter lit up with salacious accounts of a sordid tryst, and because the college\'s media specialists did not move quickly to respond, the implication was that the college—and, thus, the president—was attempting to cover up the scandal. Eventually, the college was able to demonstrate that no coverup had occurred and that officials were simply attempting to exercise due diligence before making public statements, yet the mismanaged communication strategy had allowed the president\'s critics to use the incident as a way to embarrass his administration and him.
Clearly, the Web has made controlling our own message exceedingly difficult for colleges. There are, however, some measures that campus officials can take to avoid losing control. Most communication experts agree on the top three most important actions to take early in a crisis:
• Respond quickly. Every minute that goes by after a campus crisis and before you respond is a minute that can result in someone else\'s seizing control of your message.
• Respond clearly. Make your response unambiguous and easy to understand. Vague or overly complex statements can only confuse people or make them suspect that the college is hiding something.
• Admit you don\'t know. Some officials make the common mistake of not communicating that the college does not yet know all the facts of an incident. Instead, they attempt to dodge certain questions or answer with \"no comment.\" That just leads people to be suspicious.
The Homeland Security officials at the conference advised campus executives to devise \"crisis-response plans\" for different types of emergencies. That is, they recommend that we draft a series of templates for how to respond. Those templates can be quickly revised to fit the facts of a specific crisis and then released as public statements not only through traditional channels, such as press releases, but through social media as well.
That approach allows campus officials to respond with a rapidity that will enable them to focus public attention on the institution\'s message rather than on inaccurate alternative narratives that might be posted on the Web.
It is ironic that even in academe—where we traditionally place a premium on facts, evidence, and empirically verified observations—a Google or Twitter account of an incident can trump the factual account. That, it seems to me, is a profoundly anti-intellectual turn. But it is, nonetheless, the climate we face.
The trick for campus officials facing a crisis—or any other situation where the message can go awry—is to make every effort to ensure that what Google says is exactly what you said first.
Author Bio: Gary A. Olson is a scholar of rhetoric and culture and president of Daemen College, in Amherst, N.Y. His most recent book is A Creature of Our Own Making: Reflections on Contemporary Academic Life (SUNY Press). He can be contacted at http://garyaolson.com.


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RIPE-NCC is the oldest of the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), and RIPE is the deliberately unorganized association of interested parties that meets twice a year and holds discussions online in between. It's a mix of operations, research, and socializing. Topics range from obscure details of deploying IPv6 to organizational proposals such as what I was talking about. 430 people attended the meeting in Rome, which was quite a few more than the dozen or two of the first RIPE meeting I went to many years ago.
Interesting questions were asked. I may blog some of them.


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Johnny Weir's divorce from estranged husband Victor Voronov is getting messy.
One day after the Olympic figure skate announced he and his lawyer beau had split up after less than two years of marriage, Weir is opening up about their rocky relationship in a dramatic new interview.
"I've been having a tough time at home for a long time now, and it's something that I've kept from the public," Weir, 29, told Access Hollywood. "I was losing myself by being married to my husband. I was losing my objectives in life. I was very isolated from the world."
Weir says that although Voronov quit his law firm job to be a supportive husband, Voronov wasn't OK with Weir's busy work schedule. "He was not super-accepting of the fact I work and I have to work this week in Russia, this week in Los Angeles, next week in Tokyo, and that's something that's hard to wrap your head around," Weir said. "I was supporting two people, and whether it seems like a big deal or not, I come from a lower middle class family that has to work no matter what."
Before Weir went to Sochi to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics, he and Voronov got into a physical altercation. "We were fighting in such a terrible way, and it did get physical on that night, and it's unfortunate that things went the way that it did because domestic violence is never the way to go. Domestic violence is never the answer and when its two men, things are different," he said. "It was usually good humored wrestling, but a few times, of course, it did get physical and...some of my closest friends have seen him hit me before."
"The night in question, my husband was very drunk and was yelling at me about my relationship with my mother and my mother was assisting me in cleaning up some financial messiness that had happened, and he was uncomfortable with that and had voiced it very clearly," Weir continued. "So, we had a fight and then I went to sleep because I had to work the next day, and he came in—very not himself—and asked me to lay with him in the biblical sense, and when I refused, the altercation between us started. I was defending myself, and it's unfortunate that there was a mark left on his body, because as soon the police came to our home, the first thing he did was show this mark, so I knew then he didn't really care that much and all he is out to do is hurt me."
As for things getting worse between them, Weir joked, "The worst he could do would be to post naked photos that we have between each other and I look flawless."
Meanwhile, Voronov responded to the divorce drama today. His crisis manager Wendy Feldman tells E News, "My job as a crisis manager is to seek a remedy and protect my client. In this case, the paperwork shows a deceptive pattern. We now will seek proper resolution as we would with any traditional couple. This case is really a true test of equal rights—in marriage and now divorce."
Feldman added, "Victor gave up his law practice to be by Johnny Weir's side. And now that Johnny has started with the low blows, my job will continue to help my client navigate the road ahead while helping him heal."


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Microsoft Corporation - (Freeware)
SyncToy is a handy utility that helps synchronization between a laptop and a post office to be simple and intuitive.
SyncToy is a handy tool developed to set up a small backup solution, or to synchronize a removable device (USB stick, Smartphone or PDA key in "Mass Storage", etc.).
SyncToy can establish bidirectional synchronization, combined or repeated. The user will be able to create as many "pairs of synchronized folders" as he wants. The automatic execution timings must go with the Task Scheduler.
Advanced settings can still be adjusted as the removal of the copied files or merging two files in another, for example.
# Better Performance: The speed of file copy operations is significantly increased across the board.
# Improved Robustness: Much more resilient to transient network and file system errors and better error reporting which pin-points which file the sync failed on in case theres a fatal error that stops the sync.
# Folder pair configuration backup: Folder pair configuration is automatically backed up under %localappdata%\microsoft\synctoy\2.0. User can replace SyncToyDirPairs.bin with the backup copy to resolve last saved configuration.
# Bug Fixes:
* Fixed the data corruption issue when using SyncToy with NAS drives.
* Fixed the issue that prevented uploading files to SharePoint when using SyncToy 2.0.
* Fixed the issue that prevented delete changes from being synchronized when the sync option is set to Echo.
* Fixed the UI issue where reported file time were off by the difference between local time and UTC when destination is a FAT volume.


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Orchestra Leader - Violin Leader
Started playing with Northern Ballet in 1993.
Leader at Scottish Ballet, New D'Oyly Carte Opera, North of England Chamber Orchestra.
Guest Leader at Welsh National Opera, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Ulster Orchestra, English National Ballet and National Symphony Orchestra with Katherine Jenkins and Hayley Westenra. In January 2007 recorded works for violin and orchestra by film and light music composer Angela Morley with Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Solo performances with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Studied at Royal Academy of Music and Drama with great violinist Nathan Milstein in London and Vienna.
Interests – Owns a classic BMW and has on several occasions travelled to Germany to drive the famous Nürburgring race track.


text: Out Of This World Walkthrough by Nikolay Kaleyski Version 1.00 Contents ========================= I.Introduction II.Quick review III.Controls IV.Hints V.Walkthrough VI.Statements(important) VII.Credits VIII.Contacts ========================= I.Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, I have to admit that I found this great game by accident, while browsing through my so called "Game archives". Before a few years I had tried to play "Out Of This World", but didn't have much succes(I didn't even finish the first level!). However, I was so bored that I decided to give the game another try. And, for some reason, I managed to finish it in a few days! And, since I am once again very bored, I decided to write this walkthrough in my spare time. I hope it's helpful. II.Quick review ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A very sad thing I noticed is that today everyone judges a game by its graphic and sound and technology and most people don't even want to hear about old games, no matter if they are only text or have graphics. I have to say one thing, however : I have played many new and many old games, and I noticed that most old games are better than most new games. But not in graphics, or sound, or technology, or interface. Just in fun. Who would care if you add 35th century technology to a stupid game? It would still be a stupid game! And besides, almost all old games were succesfull. Anyway... Graphics -------- Well, I have to admit that the graphics aren't too good for today, however I still think they are very good. They somehow add to the game's atmosphere. And there's no way to realise what I mean, unless you have played the game. Rating : 8/10 Sound ----- I can't see much about sound. The sound effects are pretty good. The few spoken words sound great. As for the music, the only few themes are quite nice. Rating : 7/10 Story ----- There isn't a real story. A scientist, while performing experiments on particle acceleration is transported to a paralel world and is captured by aliens. From that point it's pretty much just "escape from prison" style. Rating : 4/10 Controls -------- The controls aren't complicated and are easy to remember and use. See the Controls section for more information Rating : 10/10 Fun --- The game is definately fun. Quick arcade action is combined with logic thinking(and I assure you, some puzzles are quite challenging). This, with some special effects added, makes this game great, despite its few problems. Only problem is, some action sequences are pretty hard. Rating : 9/10 Total ----- Not much to say here. The game is definately worth your time. Rating : 9/10 III.Controls ------------------------------------------------------------------------ All control over your character is done with keyboard. Mouse is not used. *MOVEMENT* - use the left/right arrow keys *JUMPING* - use the up arrow key. For long distance jumping, run first *DUCKING* - down arrow key *RUNNING* - hold space bar while moving *FIRE* - press space bar(if you have a gun) -hold down until you see a globe. Release to get a shield -hold down even more for a super shot *KICKING* - press space bar(if you don't have a gun) To enter a code, press 'c' IV.Hints ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.The game is full of action, so be VERY careful 2.Do not always choose the direct route 3.Save your ammunition 4.Explore everywhere 5.Keep your allies safe 6.Write down codes V.Walkthrough ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.LDKD Swim out of the pool before the tentacles can reach you. Go right and kick all the leeches. Beware, they are poisonous. One screen more to the right are seven more of them. Go right until you see a beast. Run as far left as you can and swing the vine(press UP) when you reach it. Run all the way right and you'll be saved by an alien. You will, however, be captured. 2.HTDC You awaken in a cage. Press LEFT and RIGHT to swing the cage. It should fall down and kill a guard. Get his gun and follow your new friend right. Go 2 screen right, killing any guards on the way. You will reach a locked door. Start making shields until your ally opens it, then run. When you reach the elevator, go up for a short scene. Go all the way down, left and shoot the guard. Blow up the panel to stop electricity. Go one level up with the elevator and go left. Blow up the wall with a super shot and go down the transporter(stand over it - the "hole" - and press DOWN). Ignore the guard and go left to take another transporter, this time up. When a guard comes to kill you, your friend will show you a way out. Roll down the shaft. 3.CLLD Now, you must avoid all gas. I'll just give directions. Go left until you fall, then right until you fall, then right until you fall, then left until you fall. You'll be out of the shafts. 4.LBKG The force field on the left can be used to charge your gun. Do so, then blow up the walls and go right until you reach the exit of the building. Shoot the guard and go right to a pit. Jump as far right as you can and shoot the stone wall here with a super shot, then go in the cave. 5.XDDJ Jump down the pit to the right, then the next one, then go right and jump over the stalagmites. On the screen to the right rocks will fall, so avoid them and go to the next screen. Wait for the rocks to fall, then time your movement. Run right. See that creature on the ceiling? It will eat you, unless you run quickly. On the next screen, there are some of its brothers on the floor as well. They will try to eat you too. Make your way to the next screen. Here you can shoot the ceiling creatures. On the next screen jump over the pit and go right to a wall. Blow it up. 6.FXLC Go back left to where you saw the second ceiling monster. Take the ramp up. After one screen try to shoot the bat, then go left. It will keep a monster busy for awhile. Jump on the stalactites and follow them left. You should be on a triangular rock. Drop to its left and launch a super shot. Climb it up and go as far right as you can. Blow up the wall here. Water will start filling the caves and you must run left. Stand on the stone slab here and it should take you up. Go all the way right, blow up the barrier and climb up the stairs. Go two screens right and you should enter a building. 7.KRFK Go right and kill the guard. You should have noted that your alien friend is trapped in a shaft below the floor. Go right and ignoring the guard, go down the stairs and then the teleporter. Go left and take care of the guard. Now, shoot the lamp hanging from the ceiling to free your friend. Go back to the room with the teleporter and try to go right. A guard will catch you and when you regain your control, kick him. Run to the left and take your gun, then shoot him. To the right you'll be attacked by two guards...from both sides! Raise your shields, take out the guard on the left first, then create a new shield on the right and kill the other guard as well. To the right is a swimming pool. 8.KLFB Swim down as far as you can, then go left. You'll be back in the caves. You should reach two tunnels leading up. Go through the left one and get some air. Then swim all the way down, get out of the water, jump over the creatures and go right. Shoot the electricity transporter(or whatever it is) and go all the way back to the entrance of the pool. 9.BFLX Go back to the transporter and go all the way up. Shoot the guard here and go left to see your friend escaping. Go all the way right until you reach three doors and guard. Raise up a shield and step in front of the doors toopen them. When the guard throws a grenade at you, step away. It should bounce off the door and kill the guard. Blow up the wall behind him andgo right. Recharge if needed and continue right. Shoot the green spherethrough the hole in the wall and go back to the swimming pool. 10.BRTD Go all the way right and drop down the hole. Blast the wall on the right and run. When you reach a dead end, start defending by producing shields. After some time, your friend will rescure you. 11.TFBB Go left and take the upper path. Enter the guard post through the right door and kill the guard. Your friend will kill the other one. A few screens to the right your friend will help you over a deep pit, but he'll get stuck. Jump as far left as you can and kill the guards who come to get you. Go two screens to the left. 12.TXHF Go left. Ignore the guards. Go to the door and point your gun at the guard. He'll close all doors. Go back right and up the stairs. Jump over the pit and raise a shield before blowing up the wall. Wait for the guard to launch about 5-6 grenades, then shoot him. Go to the transporter and go down. Start making a super shot. When the guard destroys the wall launch it to take care of his shield, then shoot him. Go down the transporter and shoot the panel to stop electricity. Go back down the stairs and drop down the hole. Go right, run over the grate and on the next screen jump over the hole. Pull the lever and jump down. Run all the way right and teleport up. Go left to help your friend, then go right and teleport up. Follow him to a strange machine. 13.CKJL Press the lower button, then the leftmost lower button, then the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th buttons on the new panel, then the flashing button. You'll escape. 14.LFCK Go right and kill all the guards. Go all the way right until you fall. After the encounter with a guard, you can only crawl. Crawl to the levers on the right. Wait for the fight to finish, then pull the levers just when the guard is under the panel on the roof. Crawl under the panel and you'll teleport to safety. THE END VI.Statements ------------------------------------------------------------------------ YOU CAN ==================== 1.Read, print and distribute(either in printed or electronic format) this document, as long as NOTHING is changed 2.Post this document on websites or in books, magazines, etc. AFTER receiving a direct agreement from me 3.Use the document as a model, or quote text from it as long as I am informed and all credit goes to me YOU CANNOT ==================== 1.Change this document in any way, unless you are doing it for personal reasons 2.Use the document in any way(except reading and printing it) if I am not informed and have not agreed directly VII.Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For now, all credits go to me. As with most of my walkthroughs. VIII.Contacts ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You can write e-mail at email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com. For chat or writing letters(not e-mail I mean), write an e-mail. No phone calls. Send questions about the game and they'll be posted here(with answers). You'll also get an answer by e-mail. NOTE : Please also mention your full real name, or the questions won't be posted Copyright 2004 Nikolay Kaleyski


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Thanks to Phil and Kaliya and the gang, I'm happy to say we're holding an UMA face-to-face meeting at the Computer History Museum on the Monday just prior to IIW XI (pronounced "yewksie"?).
This follows close on the heels of a face-to-face in Paris at the Kantara conference, so I hope we'll be able to crank through a lot of work in the next few weeks. What work, you ask? We're shooting for draft completion of some key items in the upper box shown here (click to get to a full-size site-mapped version on our Working Drafts page):
I've already gotten several requests for more info about the IIW meeting. These will be working meetings, not public transfer-of-information workshops, and we always welcome new participation. You can become a participant (voting/frequently attending or non-voting/attend at will, totally up to you) by filling out this form. I've put up some very preliminary agendas (Paris, Mtn View); they tend to be responsive to work done in weeks prior, so check back.
(UPDATE: There's no formal registration process for the IIW meeting as long as you're already signed up as an UMA participant; just send me an RSVP. Contact info is under my Welcome section in the right sidebar.)
Did you know our Newcastle University UMAnitarians have begun open-sourcing their Java implementation? The first big piece from the SMART Project covers UMA-friendly OAuth 2.0 and has the lovely name leeloo. They promise more to come soon, and I bet we'll see some swank demos at IIW. Check it out!


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St. Louis, MO – Rickie Weeks and Aramis Ramirez each smacked solo homers to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the middle test of a three-game set at Busch Stadium.
Carlos Gomez had two hits and a pair of RBI and Corey Hart drove in one and scored a run for the Brewers, who have won four of their last five.
"Pitching, that's how you win games," Ramirez said. "When you pitch, you're going to win a lot of ball games."
Mike Fiers (9-7) allowed one run on five hits with three walks and struck out five over five innings to pick up his third win in four starts.
John Axford stranded a runner in the ninth to earn his 27th save of the year.
Adron Chambers, Skip Schumaker and Daniel Descalso each drove in a run for the Cardinals, losers in three straight.
Jake Westbrook (13-11) gave up three runs on seven hits and walked four over five frames.
"Just erratic in my mechanics," Westbrook said of his struggles. "I wasn't doing a very good job of controlling counts.
Milwaukee took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Ramirez scored on Gomez's sacrifice bunt to the pitcher, and Fiers helped his own cause with an RBI single to center to score Jonathan Lucroy.
St. Louis got a run in the home half when David Freese scored on Descalso's base hit to right field.
Milwaukee came right back with a run in the third as Ryan Braun scored on Schumaker's fielding error. Braun reached on a base hit and moved to third on Ramirez's single.
Weeks' homer in the seventh made in 4-1 in favor of the visitors.
But the Cardinals answered back in the home half, before pushing one across in the eighth to make it 4-3.
In the seventh, pinch hitter Bryan Anderson singled then scored on Chambers' triple to right field.
Yadier Molina walked then moved to third on Pete Kozma's double before coming home on Schumaker's sacrifice fly in the eighth.
The Brewers plated two more in the ninth to account for the decisive advantage.
Ramirez clobbered a solo homer with one out and Hart scored on Gomez's single to right field.
Game Notes
Milwaukee finished 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position ... The Brewers are 41-24 when scoring first ... St. Louis was 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.


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In a sad turn of events for Eurocom — developer of those recent James Bond games — the company made the remaining 42 of its previously 150 staff members redundant after 25 years of development history, reports Eurogamer.
When you get through all the legal and business terms, it comes down to the UK-based developers not having enough money to stay afloat. Though they do hope to at least keep their doors open as a "specialist software business," said Administrator Dean Nelson, but their time as game developers has come to a sad end.
Eurocom leaves behind a legacy of many licensed franchises, ranging from James Bond titles to Harry Potter. They are perhaps best known for their more recent titles, 007 Legends, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded and GoldenEye 007 for the Wii.


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Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron is an all-new project in the Battlefront saga exclusively for the PlayStation Portable, designed to offer an all-new storyline in the single-player mode and extremely robust PSP multiplayer options.
The story in this game follow the previously secret "Renegade Squadron" that was made up of the galaxy's toughest scoundrels. As the plot unfolds, players will learn how Han Solo recruited and assembled his team and used their many talents for missions in Korriban's Valley of the Sith, the rocky remains of Alderaan, and the fiery ashes of the volcanic planet, Sullust. In addition to single-player story missions, Renegade Squadron allows up to 16 players to compete via Infrastructure mode (eight-person support for ad hoc), with a special 100-point spending system to purchase custom kits with more than a million different combinations that can be used to create unique Star Wars characters.
Map tips, strategies, plus strategy from the developer.
The Force is strong in this PSP-exclusive shooter... at least when you take the fight online. Read More »
The popular series from a galaxy far, far away gets a PSP-exclusive sequel. Read More »
It's about time: customization comes to the Battlefront series! Read More »
We interviewed the Assistant Producer of the new PSP Star Wars Battlefront game at Star Wars Celebration. Read More »
A new PSP addition to the popular series is unveiled. Read More »
Release Region: United States
Release Date: October 9, 2007
Publisher: LucasArts
Release Region: United Kingdom
Release Date: October 12, 2007
Publisher: LucasArts
Local Multiplayer - Versus: 8
Online Multiplayer - Versus: 16
For more info on these technical requirements and features, please view GameSpy's Specs FAQ.
Star Wars Battlefront:... at IGN
Star Wars Battlefront:... at GameSpy
Star Wars Battlefront:... at GameStats


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Understanding Aspect Ratio
What to do with those black bars
Heads up!
Welcome to this article from the Crutchfield archives. Have fun reading it, but be aware that the information may be outdated and links may be broken.Are you one of those HDTV owners who are occasionally frustrated by the "black bars" that pop up on either side of the screen when you watch regular, non-high-definition shows? In this article, we'll explain why you see them and offer some solutions.
Aspect ratio basics
There are two common TV screen shapes that most folks will recognize — the squarish shape of old school tube TVs, and the widescreen shape of today's HDTVs. The term used to describe TV screen shape is "aspect ratio" — conventional TVs, and a few small-screen HDTVs, have a 4:3 aspect ratio; widescreen HDTVs have a 16:9 ratio.
TV shows will also have either a 4:3 or 16:9 ratio. While virtually all new HD shows are in 16:9, you'll still find some TV broadcasts in the conventional 4:3 ratio. And it's the difference in shape between those two ratios that can result in a "pillar boxed" picture — one with black columns standing to the left and right of the image — when you watch a conventional 4:3 program on your widescreen TV.
What you can do about the "black bars"
You may choose to keep the black bars on 4:3 sources, or decide to stretch or zoom that picture to fill the whole screen — it's a matter of personal preference. Nearly all recent widescreen TVs include one or more viewing modes that fill out the screen's width by stretching, zooming, or stretching and zooming the image. While most people find this effect acceptable for non-critical "background" viewing like the local news, many aren't thrilled when their favorite actors suddenly look noticeably stockier. See the images below to get an idea of how these picture adjustments might look.
4:3 image on a 16:9 screenWhen 4:3 programs are displayed on a 16:9 screen, black or gray bars appear on the sides of the screen — the image is "pillar-boxed." | 4:3 image stretched to fill a |
4:3 image zoomed to fill a | 16:9 image on a 16:9 screenWhen you look at this widescreen version of the image we've been using to show 4:3, you can see just how much of the picture is lost with a 4:3 image. |
We've found that zooming and stretching a picture works better for some shows than others. For example, a crisp Discovery Channel show can still look clear and detailed when zoomed or stretched; but lower-quality signals, such as reruns of older shows, can look noticeably more blurry and washed out. Of course, if you're someone who gets distracted by black bars on the side of your screen, you may prefer to go with a somewhat fuzzier picture. It's really up you.
If you do prefer a stretched or zoomed picture, then try to get familiar with the different aspect ratio modes your TV offers. Usually, there's a dedicated button on the remote, often labeled "Wide" or "Aspect," that lets you cycle through several options.
Still watch a lot of DVDs?
There are a couple of additional things worth noting if you watch a lot of DVDs. Namely, you'll find a range of aspect ratios and aspect ratio options. We've listed them below, along with some tips for watching them on a widescreen TV.
- Some discs have both "widescreen" (16:9 or wider) and "full screen" (4:3) aspect ratio options — you can choose the one that best fits your screen.
- Many discs offer only widescreen or full screen — make sure you shop accordingly.
- Some discs feature an "anamorphic" aspect ratio. These movies have extra lines of information inserted in a 4:3 signal, which the TV is then supposed to expand to fill a 16:9 screen. But, depending on the combination of your TV and player, it may not work properly. See our Troubleshooting section below for tips.
- Many DVD (and Blu-ray) movies feature aspect ratios that are wider than a 16:9 TV screen, such as 1.85:1 or 2.39:1. You'll especially notice the extra width of 2.39:1 movies because you'll see black bars on the top and bottom of the image — kind of like you would if you were watching a 16:9 letterboxed movie on an older 4:3 TV. These black bars don't bother most folks, but if you find them distracting, try cycling through your TV's aspect ratio modes to zoom or vertically stretch the image to fill the screen.
Troubleshooting aspect ratio problems
It's important to keep in mind that your TV isn't the only thing in your system that can affect aspect ratio. Your cable box, DVD or Blu-ray player, and other source components likely all have their own aspect ratio settings. And the TV show your cable box displays, or the movie in your disc player, also have their own set aspect ratios. If your TV, source component, and source material aren't all on the same page regarding aspect ratio, some pretty funky things can happen.
To avoid aspect ratio issues as much as possible, here's what we suggest:
- As you're setting up your video sources, be sure to go into the picture settings to menu and set it to the proper aspect ratio. The specific terms used in these menus differ, but for a widescreen TV you'll likely see something called "widescreen" or "16:9," for example.
Use your disc player's setup menu to get a properly formatted picture on your TV screen. |
- Get to know your TV's aspect ratio controls. As we discussed before, today's TVs generally have a dedicated button on the remote that lets you quickly cycle through your options. Since the aspect ratio of the programming you're watching can change frequently — when you change the channel, for example, or even when a new show begins on the same channel — you should get comfortable using these controls to get the picture to your liking.
Below, you'll find some examples of common aspect ratio problems, along with some additional tips for remedying them.
A 16:9 image on a screen set to 4:3. |
16:9 image on a screen set to 4:3
In this case, the source component is outputting a 16:9 signal, but the TV is displaying it in a 4:3 aspect ratio. You can see that the image has been squished horizontally to fit in this smaller area. We recommend cycling through your aspect ratio options to tell your TV to display a 16:9 image.
A "letterbox" 16:9 image on a screen set to 4:3. |
"Letterbox" 16:9 image on a screen set to 4:3
The image in this example has a 16:9 aspect ratio, it's just not filling up the whole screen. Why not? The culprit in this case is often source material formatted for 4:3 TVs that's actually carrying a 16:9 program. So, the source material includes black bars on the top and bottom to make the 16:9 show fit the 4:3 space. Then, the source component sends that 4:3 signal to your TV — and it's either stretched or zoomed to fill the screen, or has pillar box bars on the left and right.
We've come across this problem before in a couple of different situations: (1) Occasionally, channels that normally broadcast shows in 16:9 mistakenly broadcast a 16:9 show in a 4:3 space; (2) Sometimes, DVDs labeled "anamorphic" will have this effect — even though they're supposed to fit a 16:9 screen, your disc player or TV may not handle the signal properly. In both cases, you may be able to correct the problem by adjusting aspect ratio settings on your cable/satellite box or disc player, but often the easiest (and possibly only) thing you can do is simply zoom the smaller 16:9 image to fill your larger 16:9 screen.
A 4:3 image with a pillar box on a screen set to a 4:3 aspect ratio. |
4:3 image with pillar box on a screen set to 4:3
Here, the source component sent a pillar-boxed 4:3 image — in effect, an image made to fit a 16:9 screen. However, the TV is set to display a 4:3 image, so it adds a second set of black bars. We recommend cycling through your aspect ratio options to tell your TV to display a 16:9 image — either a pillar-boxed view, or a stretched or zoomed view to get rid of the black bars.